Trivia / Carry On, Sergeant

• Actor-Shared Background: Hattie Jacques, who played Captain Clark, the Medical Officer, was a nurse in the VAD during World War II.
• Blooper:
  • When Captain Potts pins the chart to the training progress board, the intake is shown to be number 29. Despite this, at the end of the film it is announced to be 60th intake.
  • After Peter swings across the training rope he lets go of it. However, in the next scene, he is once more holding the rope.
  • As Sergeant Grimshawe runs with Corporal Copping to catch up to the Privates on the last day, he calls out "Left! Left! Left!" as he steps with his right foot.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Cyril Chamberlain plays the Gun Sergeant but had been noted as a possible choice for Sergeant Grimshawe if William Hartnell was unavailable.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Belgium: Let's Go, Sergeant.
  • Denmark: Attention Recruits.
  • Germany: Cheer Up, Chest Out!.
  • Hungary: Go on, Sergeant!.
• The Danza:
  • Bill Owen as Corporal Bill Copping.
  • John Matthews as Sergeant Matthews.
• Dawson Casting: The National Service recruits, who should be in their late teens or early 20s, were all played by actors who were over 30 at the time of filming (in fact, Charles Hawtrey was over 40, Kenneth Connor nearly so).
• Deleted Role: Alec Bregonzi, in his film debut, was one of the storemen, and his scene cut at the last minute, leaving him in just a bit part.
• Deleted Scene:
  • Andy getting his kit from a storeman.
  • On an episode of Des O'Connor Tonight, Bob Monkhouse recalls a scene of Charlie swinging over a mud pit on a rope that was unused.
  • A scene that brought up the topic of rape was cut by the censors.
• Dolled-Up Installment: The film was based on a play The Bull Boys by R. F. Delderfield and was adapted into a script by Norman Hudis with John Antrobus contributing additional material and replacing the conscripted ballet dancers of the novel with a married couple.
• DVD Commentary: With Carry On historian Robert Ross talking to Shirley Eaton (Mary Sage), Dora Bryan (Norah), and Terence Longdon (Private Miles Heywood).
• Executive Meddling: Bob Monkhouse's casting as the lead was at the insistence of Anglo-Amalgamated.
• Fake Brit: The Australian Ed Devereaux plays the British Sergeant Russell.
• Hostility on the Set: There was tension between Bernard Kay and William Hartnell, and Hartnell desperately wanted him to be kicked off the project.
• The Pete Best: Bob Monkhouse, William Hartnell, and Dora Bryan all had large roles in the film but never appeared again in the series.
• Referenced by...: The film plays at the holiday camp cinema in the 1973 film That'll Be the Day.
• Similarly Named Works: Another film made in Canada some 30 years earlier had the same title, although that one was not a comedy.
• Throw It In!: Kenneth Williams ad-libbed the word, "Charming!" when the large cap is placed on his head. Ad-libbing was usually frowned upon but on this occasion, it was kept in.
• What Could Have Been:
  • At the earliest points of production, the film was intended to be a drama.
  • Before Norman Hudis, writing duties were turned down by Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan, while John Antrobus wrote a script that went unused barring a few character names staying the same.
  • Val Guest was asked to direct the film before Gerald Thomas.
  • Peter Rogers favoured George Cole for the role of Charlie before Bob Monkhouse was cast.
  • Gordon Tanner replaced John Stuart as the first specialist when his contract was cancelled.
  • Patrick Newell was originally cast, but when he turned up on the first morning, he saw that the army sergeant who was going to drill the actors for the film was the same one that had drilled him when he was in the army and said that he wasn't going to go through that again and left.
  • Terence Skelton was cast as "Fourteenth Recruit" but dropped out before filming.
  • Starting a long-running series of censorship complaints in the series, the BBFC ordered several cuts to the script including all mentions of rape (seen as unmentionable for the "U" category), the phrase "the nuptials", the line "Man does not live by sausage rolls alone" (any jokes about Bible verses weren't allowed), and references to looking pregnant and "having been mucked about". They also insisted on removing the phrase "heap of chits" (for being used to allude to "heap of shit"), although it had already been filmed and Rogers managed to keep the offending scene in the film.
  • A scene where Horace Strong complains about his vertigo and Sergeant Grimshawe tells him "vere to go" was considered too corny and cut from the script.
  • Producer Rogers confirms on the DVD Commentary for That's Carry On! that if William Hartnell was unavailable then Cyril Chamberlain would've played Sergeant Grimshawe instead.
• Working Title:
  • R. F. Delderfield's original treatment was titled National Service Story.
  • Later on, it was also known as The Bull Boys, The Long and the Short and the Tall, and This Side of the Ocean.
• Write What You Know: John Antrobus used his time growing up in an army camp (his father was a Sergeant Major) and his two and a half years in the army to inspire his initial (unused) script.

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